The first step in promoting a meeting is to develop a marketing plan, which always begins with the goals and objectives of the meeting as well as the meeting content, and answers these questions:

• Is there a demand for the meeting?
• How many competitors provide a similar meeting?
• Can you effectively compete on price, quality, and delivery?

Developing a marketing plan is an orderly process, which involves:

• examining market potential and defining the market
• creating specific marketing goals and objectives for tapping that potential
• laying out how goals and objectives will be met in a marketing/promotional strategy
• continually anticipating, assessing, and adapting to market changes by adjusting strategies as necessary.

The marketing plan should be a written "working document," allowing for changes made in response to changing market conditions, and should guide marketing expenditures.

What is included in a marketing plan?
1) A targeted market analysis - to whom should the meeting be marketed? You can identify all potential target markets and market segments (e.g., attendees and exhibitors) by conducting research (via surveys by mail, phone or online; focus groups; Internet research). You also need to determine the demographics of the target audiences, including past and potential attendees/exhibitors, and why they should/would attend and where they get their information about meetings (which marketing media they use).
2) A competitive analysis - what other meetings are competing for your attendees' and exhibitors' time and money? Include all types of - not just face-to-face - meetings/educational opportunities, such as Webcasts and online courses. You need to dig deep to find out what competitors are offering in terms of content and cost. Your meeting needs to be competitive in providing clear value for the cost.
3) Goals and objectives - of the meeting and of the marketing of the meeting should also be included in the marketing plan in specific detail. You also need to include the marketing budget and the promotional strategy.
4) Measurements for success - if marketing goals and objectives are well-designed, this step should be relatively easy.

A great deal of what you will need to spend to "sell" your meeting depends on internal and external factors. The more attractive these factors are, the less the need for marketing - and associated costs. These factors include:

• The strength of educational program - the better and more attractive the content to your target markets, the less marketing required. The program will "sell itself" to some extent with strong content.
• The convenience of the meeting dates to target markets - here's where demographics play a large part. For example, someone holding a meeting for tax accountants in March or April is going to have to spend an awful lot of resources on marketing to get anyone to attend (probably unsuccessfully). The industry and important dates/time periods come into play as do demographics; for example, if your target audiences have children and typically bring families to meetings, then school breaks or summer is more convenient to potential attendees.
• The perceived desirability of the meeting location - a great "draw" destination will do some of the marketing for you so you spend less. If the destination changes every year, the marketing budget will also need to change to reflect the difference in the draw of the location.
• The size and makeup of the target audience - will obviously impact the budget. If you have to print a high quantity of brochures, or if it is decided that direct mail might prove more effective than electronic marketing, overall costs will go up.
• The overall cost of attending the meeting - will also impact the marketing budget. If target markets perceive the destination or the overall costs to be high, you will need to spend more resources marketing the meeting than if the costs are perceived to be lower.

As a starting point, figure the total marketing budget will be in the range of 10 percent to 20 percent of the total meeting budget. Review what was spent on past meetings, taking into consideration the difference in the outside factors listed above; estimate and total the costs for each of the pieces you will need to market the meeting; and estimate what your competitors are spending to market their meeting. This step might sound irrelevant, but if a meeting that directly competes for your target audiences has a $50,000 marketing budget and you are spending $10,000, who do you think is going to get the attendees? Make sure to check out the cost-saving ideas on pages 76-77 of PCMA's Professional Meeting Management® Fifth Edition.

Editor's Note: Part 2 of this topic will appear in the June issue and cover
integrated marketing approaches and new technologies to market
the meeting.

° Vicky Betzig, CMP, is president/ owner of Meetings Industry Consulting and has more than 20 years of experience in managing meetings, conferences, conventions, trade shows, and events. She has extensive experience in the development, production, and facilitation of CMP study programs and is a nationally recognized trainer, presenter, and author (the co-recipient of PCMA's 2004 Author of the Year Achievement Award) on a variety of meeting management topics. She can be contacted at vabetzig@mindspring.com.

The Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) designation, the foremost certification program of today's
meetings, conventions and expositions industry, recognizes those who have achieved the industry's highest standards of professionalism. Established in 1985 by the Convention Industry Council (CIC), the CMP credential was developed to increase the proficiency of meeting professionals in any component
or sector of the industry.